Oneonta Runner's Dream Is Coming True
By LIBBY CUDMOREONEONTA
In high school, Oneonta resident Teresa Berschwinger made her “bucket list.”
“I wrote that I wanted to run the Disney World Half Marathon,” she said. “But if you had even suggested I would have run a full marathon, I would have thought you were crazy.”
Now Berschwinger, a physical education teacher at South Kortright Central School, will run her first New York City marathon on Sunday, November 1. The race, which starts in Staten Island and ends near the Tavern on the Green in Manhattan’s Central Park, takes runners 26.2 miles across all five boroughs.
A teacher at South Kortright since 2019, Berschwinger got her students involved in Rising New York Road Runners, a program that incentivizes kids to take up running as a sport and a hobby by offering different challenges and incentives. For every challenge, Berschwinger said, she had to submit a report in order to get the incentive. Her students have received t-shirts, water bottles and even 10 brand-new pairs of New Balance running sneakers. But one incentive really stood out—a chance to apply for a spot in the NYC marathon.
“I filled out the information as soon as I got it,” she said. “And when I found out I got that spot, I almost couldn’t believe it. I was so excited, I was texting everyone.”
The NYC marathon was started in 1970, with the original course lapping Central Park. The current course was established in 1976.
Though Berschwinger—who played soccer and basketball in high school in Grafton, New York—began running as a hobby when she was a student at SUNY Brockport in 2008, she only started running marathons last year.
